The predominant popular understanding of the 1812 Fort Dearborn conflict has been formed by Juliette Magill Kinzie's
Wau-Bun: The Early Day in the Northwest, first published in 1856.
Wau-Bun
recounted Kinzie's experiences in Chicago from 1833 as well as Kinzie family stories heard from her mother-in-law. In the early 20th century historian Milo M. Quaife found Kinzie's account unreliable in its account of Fort Dearborn, as it relied on family stories that exaggerated the role of some participants and was unfairly biased against others. Over time Quaife came to realize that despite his findings, the literary appeal of Kinzie's book was likely to retain its power over the popular imagination of Chicagoans.